WJTC 02 Dueouts

1
Joint Staff J-7
Joint Staff Officer Study Combined
Report September 2008
2
Joint Staff Officer Population
Combatant Command HQ Staff Officers in
(authorized/ approved billets)

49.8
Total number of O-4s and below is actually higher
because assignments are allowed at one grade
higher or lower.
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JSO Study Respondents
On site visits staff officers 211
senior leaders 82 Survey Respondents Staff
Officers
52.5
Survey Respondents Senior Leaders (Div Chiefs
and Above)
Total Respondents 1639 staff officers, 219 Sr.
Leaders
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Survey Respondent Profile by Service and
Component
37.7
25.6
.4
6.4
29.5
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Current JSO Profile
52 of survey respondents are in grades O-4 and
below whereas 49 of authorized/approved
billets are at grades O-4 and below 44 have
less than a year in billet 77 have not attended
JPME II 63 say the learning curve is 7 months
or longer 40 work 50 or more hours per week 40
of work time is spent on written tasks 33 of
work time is spent on creating and contributing
to briefings
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Time in Billet

• 37 of respondents have been in current billets
  nine months or less,9 for nine to twelve months
• What this indicates for the commands--coupled
  with 50 of staff officers in grades O-4 and
  below--is large portions of the HQ staff with
  minimal joint and staff experience for handling
  required tasks. Lack of experience, short
  rotations, churning of personnel across
  directorates once in the command, and lack of
  required JPME prior to arriving at the command
  all contribute to longer learning curves for
  staff officers

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Learning Curve/Ramp up Time

• 63 of survey respondents say the learning curve
• is 7 months or longer
• Those who indicated seven months or longer break
  down as follows
• O-6s.60 (58 of 97 respondents)
• O-5s.74 (374 of 507 respondents)
• O-4s.72 (350 of 483 respondents)
• O-3s.65 (105 of 161 respondents)
• O-2s.50 (4 of 8 respondents)
• O-1s.33 (1 of 3 respondents)

8
Current JSO Background and Experience

• 68 are in their first joint assignment
• 69 are in their first Combatant Command
  assignment
• 23 are in their first staff assignment
• 35 are working directly with Interagency
  personnel for the first time
• 20 are working with contractors for the first
  time
• 14 are working with multinationals for the first
  time
• 8 are working with government civilians for
  the first time

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Lack of Accurate Job Descriptions

• Very few current, accurate job descriptions exist
  for staff officer positions.
• This creates a need for too many skills to be
  learned at the same time at the front end of the
  assignment.
• Without better job descriptions it is difficult
  to design targeted training.

10
Need for Training for Working with Command
Personnel

• 951 respondents--first time working in a joint
  assignment first time working at this level of
  interaction with other Service personnel
  communication issues because of different
  terminologies. Of the 1,288 who work with
  members of the other Services, 34 of those440
  staff officerssaid they have had no formal
  training for working with or managing the work
  the other Services personnel.
• 107 of the 1,282 who work with government
  civilians reported this as a first time
  experience 35455 staff officersreport no
  formal training for working with government
  civilians, and really do not understand work
  restrictions, or reward and appraisal programs.
• 272 of the 1,205 respondents say this is the
  first time to work with contractors on a regular
  basis 37--443 staff officershave had no
  formal training for working with contractor
  support. Working with contractors is more
  troublesome as staff officers report not fully
  understanding contract regulations or knowing how
  to maximize contractor support.

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Need for Training for Working with Command
Personnel

• 481 staff officers report this is the first time
  to work with interagency partners. Staff officers
  and leaders say one of the most needed training
  requirements is teaching staff officers how to
  work more effectively with interagency personnel.
  Over 32 of total survey respondents say they
  have never had any formal training for working
  with interagency partners.
• Only 196 staff officers say this is their first
  time to work with multinationals. 33 of all
  survey respondents have never had any formal
  training. Staff officers say they have had more
  experience working with multinationals in their
  careers than with interagency partners.
• Active duty staff officers also identified the
  need for training for working with Guard and
  Reserve personnel as they did not fully
  understand the rules and policies governing
  assignments of Guard members and Reservists

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Supervising Others

• In every category (other service members,
  government civilians, contractors, multi-agency
  personnel multinational and Guard and Reserve
  member), over 30 of supervisors have had no
  formal training for managing non-US military
  personnel. Supervisors said that it was
  difficult to understand the career administrative
  requirements for evaluating, rewarding, and
  counseling for performance issues.

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Writing Requirements

• One of the primary staff officer requirements is
  to write at an executive level, and to lead or
  participate in a number of activities which are
  writing-based.
• The average joint staff officer spends 40 of
  work time on written tasks such as e-mails,
  information papers, various reports, ghost
  writing, and plans.
• A consistent complaint from senior leaders across
  all Combatant Commands is that staff officers
  writing skills are below par for a strategic
  level organization they need both training in
  writing for a strategically focused executive
  organization and in fundamental skills such as
  grammar and spelling.
• Staff officers consistently identified the need
  to write strategically, but have had little to no
  training to do so, and do not know where to get
  the training.
• Staff officers across all the commands
  consistently recognized the need to pay more
  attention to the quality of written tasks, but
  the volume of work is so heavy, they reluctantly
  sacrifice quality to handle the quantitycutting
  and pasting is the way of doing business.

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Briefing Requirements

• Senior leaders identified three specific
  categories for general improvement needed in the
  area of creating briefings
• Staff officers need a higher skill level with
  PowerPoint than they have normally used in prior
  assignments for creating more complex briefings
• Staff officers need to be better able to
  synthesize large amounts of information the
  tendency is to include too much
• Staff officers need to be better able to provide
  concise, strategic courses of action in their
  briefings, with back up details as requested.
• Staff officers spend, on average, 33 of the work
  week on briefings19 spent in preparing their
  own, as well as an additional 14 in contributing
  information to other briefs.
• Frequency of creating briefings varied
  significantly, with 11.8 of respondents required
  to create briefs on a daily basis, and .9
  required to create less than one brief per year.
  31.4 create briefings at least once a week.

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Briefings, Continued

• Staff officers need to arrive in a Combatant
  Command with exceptional briefing skills, because
  rarely do supervisors have time to train
  personnel how to brief.
• 59 of respondents brief at the O-7 GO/FO level
• 47 at the O-8 level
• 56 at the senior government civilian level
• 25 brief all the way to the O-9 and O-10 levels.

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Tools

• One of the requests from staff officers and
  senior leaders is for the Joint Staff to
• lead the way in selecting a single standard tool
  for task management. Staff
• officers said that it was often difficult to work
  across commands because
• systems were incompatible. From the data
  collected for the study it was
• determined that
• Each command has its own task management system
• Each command has its own web portal system
• Each command selects its own LMS
• In addition to common tools (e.g., JOPES, JWICS,
  JTIMS, Microsoft Office tools) the commands
  identified approximately 250 additional technical
  tools.USTRATCOM alone identified 50 additional
  unclassified tools its staff officers use.
• Both leadership and staff officers agreed there
  should be a minimum competency standard for
  incoming staff officers in Microsoft Office suite
  
• 48.5 of the survey respondents have had no
  training in Microsoft Word
• 58.6 had no training in PowerPoint
• 58 had no training in Excel
• and 45 had no training in their commands
  tasking management systemthe primary tools used
  daily in their jobs.

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Obstacles to Getting Work Done

• Tasking System
• Staff officers in all commands feel the tasking
  process is out of sync, with room for significant
  improvements from the Joint Staff down the chain
  to the individual
• Coordination issues
• finding the right people at the right levels with
  the accurate information needed for a particular
  task. getting input and feedback in a timely
  manner reluctance of people to share
  information
• Competing Priorities
• almost every task coming is labeled critical
  with a short-fused suspense date there is a
  continuous stream of pop-up-taskers whose owners
  want priority over the other high-priority tasks
  currently in coordination lack of coordination
  among directorates often leads to redundant
  tasks the volume of taskers coming in exceeds
  the capacity to manage them in a timely manner
  due to so many competing priorities, staff
  officers need more and better guidance from
  senior leaders about which high priority items
  actually have the highest priority.

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Obstacles to Getting Work Done

• Insufficient Guidance and Direction need clearer
  direction up front when they receive a task, and
  feedback as to what made a task or briefing
  successful upon completion
• Organizational/Command Issues
• Lack of well-defined mission requirements and
  division of labor within the directorates on
  command mission
• Too much reorganization
• Lack of definition of roles and responsibilities
  of the Joint Directorates and partner agencies
  within the command creates confusion as to chain
  of command and information sharing
  responsibilities and determining who has
  authority to do what
• Inconsistent and/or multiple task management
  tools, staffing processes, formats, and
  procedures, which slow down the staffing process
• Lengthy turn around time for tasks requiring
  senior level input, sign off. Too many people
  involved in the process the higher the level
  needed for sign off the worse the ratio of people
  involved
• Lack of relevant, targeted training for staff
  officer tasks.

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Obstacles to Getting Work Done

• Geographical and Time Zone Constraints
• Lack of individual knowledge or skills to
  complete tasks
• Lack of proper security clearances
• Internal Organization
• Joint Directorates are not well defined constant
  reorganizations keep moving subject matter
  experts around and realigning directorate
  responsibilities hand offs from predecessors are
  usually non-existent supervisors often do not
  offer guidance orientation programs are
  insufficient and most of their peers are
  overworked and do not have much time to assist
• Technology Issues capacity and band-width
  issues, incompatible systems, software
  malfunctions, IT support, length of time to get
  access to systems, and limitations of
  collaborative tools
• Work/Office Environment and Facilities office
  noise, and chaos physical plant issues such as
  distances between buildings, difficulty getting
  into offices

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Characteristics and Capabilities of the Ideal
Staff Officer
Service and Subject Matter Capabilities and
Experience
Business and Professional Skills
Joint Knowledge and Mindset
Personal Attributes/ Characteristics
Combatant Command Level Mindset and Capabilities
Work Ethic/Perseverance
Interpersonal, collaboration, and communication
skills
Leadership and Management Skills
Lifelong Learner
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15 Core Competencies

• 1 Understands the role of a joint staff
  officer, and performs work requirements
  consistently at a high level of proficiency.
• 2 Understands the organization and missions of
  the ten Combatant Commands
• 3 Exhibits joint and command-level mindset and
  knowledge and applies them to all work products
  and services
• 4 Is highly knowledgeable of his/her Service
  organization, capabilities, and business
  practices
• 5 Knowledgeable of authorities and legal
  requirements affecting the Combatant Commands

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15 Core Competencies, contd

• 6 Knowledgeable of US Government Agencies
  (State Department, Justice, Department of
  Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury,
  etc.) and cognizant of their relationships with
  the Combatant Commands
• 7 Able to write, read, and conduct research at
  an advanced level appropriate for work
  performance at an executive level
• 8 Uses well-developed strategic and higher
  order critical thinking skills for task
  assignments and problem solving
• 9 Exhibits excellent time management skills
• 10 Able to communicate effectively at executive
  levels and across a diverse workforce

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15 Core Competencies, contd

• 11 Able to build constructive work
  relationships
• 12 Able to effectively manage and lead in a
  diverse work environment (civilians, contractors,
  Guard and Reserve, own and sister Services
  personnel, interagency and multinational
  personnel)
• 13 Able to maximize technology software and
  hardware capabilities
• 14 Able to effectively participate in exercise
  preparation/planning 1
• 15 Practices lifelong learning behaviors
• 1 Note (If assigned to a directorate
  responsible for exercises and planning, advanced
  and/or content specific knowledge will be needed)

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Understanding the Role of a Joint Staff Officers

• One of the most import gaps to fill, say senior
  leaders, is for joint staff officers to better
  understand the role and responsibilities of the
  job
• functions as the brains of the boss ability to
  pick up on the boss' comment and run with it
  without formal tasking
• functions as an information integrator
• rarely serves as the technical content subject
  matter expert, but rather as the harvester of
  information from subject matter expert
• knows how to develop and route products to get to
  the end user
• has a word-processor mentality understands
  that he or she is the conduit for moving masses
  of staff paperwork to reach small audience for
  signature
• understands what the command senior leaders need
  at a strategic level takes a strategic view for
  all the products produced
• understands the need to knowwho should be
  included in an action and who is not necessary
  for the tasker to be finalized

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JSO Recommendations to Services

• Assure attendance at appropriate training and
  education programs prior to arrival at Command
  (spec. JPME I and II)
• Provide joint experiences (assignments, training,
  education) earlier in careers
• Make a better effort to assign people more
  accurately

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JSO Recommendations to Joint Staff

• Select and implement a single, standardized
  tasking tool, formats, and processes
• Ensure attendance at JPME I and II prior to
  arrival at Commandincrease billets, provide
  mobile teams
• Streamline tasking process from JS downbetter
  coordination before sending, reduction of pop-up
  taskers, better prioritization system
• Provide more realistic timelines for review and
  completion (e.g., with pubs)

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Recommended Follow-on Actions
The ultimate goal is to prepare joint officers
who will report to assignments ready and able to
perform work tasks with high levels of
proficiency.

• 1. Joint Staff J-7 JETD and JEDD, working in
  conjunction, should lead the way to immediately
  incorporate the findings of this study into the
  Joint Learning Continuum and the Joint Officer
  Development Program as part of the individual
  training component, aligned with the Chairmans
  Vision for Joint Officer Development, the OSD
  Training Transformation initiatives, and other
  initiatives and instructions as appropriate
• 2. Document and formally define the Joint
  Learning Continuum using relevant OSD Directives
  and Joint Staff Instructions
• 3. With JS J-7 as the lead and working with
  JFCOM JKDDC, develop a five-year action plan,
  with implementation steps for actionable items
  for achieving the Joint Learning Continuum
• 4. With JS J-7 JETD as the lead, develop a plan
  of action to provide a common joint tasking
  management tool, and standardized formats and
  procedures for managing joint staffing packages
  for use across and among the Joint Staff and the
  Combatant Commands

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Recommended Actions, contd.

• 5. Create a task force of stakeholder
  representatives (Joint and Service) to review and
  refine the fifteen competencies identified in the
  study and begin to explore mid- to long-term
  solutions for individual training and education
  that will teach these competencies to potential
  joint staff personnel. The initial outcome
  should be a report with viable, actionable
  solutions with recommendations and timelines as
  appropriate the long-term outcome should be a
  formal plan and curriculum (including both
  training and education approaches).
• 6. JS J-7 JETD should provide support to the
  Combatant Commands in developing their own robust
  organic training capabilities to develop
  Command-specific joint staff officer training.
• 7. Conduct an analysis of the fifteen
  competencies against the Combatant Commands Joint
  Mission Essential Task Lists.

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Recommended Actions, Contd.

• As parallel short-term efforts which could
  provide
• some immediate support
• JS J7 JETD should lead the inventory and
  assessment of current, existing Combatant
  Command- sponsored training (courses, modules,
  briefings, reports, etc.) which are viable as
  primary sources for teaching/ training any of the
  fifteen core competencies and which can be shared
  immediately across the commands.
• Working together JS-J7 JEDD and JS J7 JETD should
  create an inventory of existing courses or
  modules within the existing JPME programs which
  could possibly address any of the competencies
  and which are shareable across the commands.
• JS J7 JETD, working with the JFCOM JKDDC team,
  conduct a cross check and assessment of existing
  JKDDC courseware which could address any of the
  competency components.
• 11. JFCOM JKDCC should lead the development of a
  Joint Staff Officer 101 course to teach the core
  skills and knowledge needed as identified by
  senior leaders and staff officers for working in
  a combatant command.

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• Questions/Discussion

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Way AheadDraft Joint Staff Officer Action Plan

Individual Staff Joint TrainingWorking Group
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Individual Staff Joint TrainingWorking Group
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Individual Staff Joint TrainingWorking Group